Eastern Region Big Bang at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford

18 July 2011

Excellent organisation by SETPOINT Hertfordshire and STEM Team Essex had the event running like clockwork with a record attendance of students with projects and judges.

As well as the entries for CREST Awards – projects that have a Bronze, Silver or Gold CREST award were eligible for “Best CREST” and “Most Creative CREST” prizes in all three categories – there were Young Engineer for Britain (YEB) projects, which were eligible for category awards and overall winner prizes in the three YEB age categories.

The above categories as well as individually entered projects were eligible for sponsor prizes, for example our Branch IOP Award, the MBDA engineering prize, the RSC Chemistry prize, MSD Biology prize to name a few. There was also a "Club Showcase" where clubs not wanting to compete, but just to exhibit their work did so and separate prizes were available here. Selected projects from the Regional Fairs go forward to the National Big Bang Fair in Birmingham in 2012.

Stands were representing various scientific organisations, Rosie Davies, (IOP Regional Officer for the East of England), was at the IOP stand, Queen Mary University of London and the Open University also provide information as did the ASE, there were many other stands to choose from.

Other activities for students included the Bloodhound show, Fantastic Plastic with Professor Averil Macdonald, Dr Stuart Clark with ‘Big Questions about the Universe’ the Bionic Ear Show and Classroom Medics so outside judging time students had plenty of interesting events to attend, or of course they could just look at the aircraft displays in the hangar.

Professor Peter Kalmus, Vicki Hodges, Bob Boutland and Karen Gregory, (Teacher Network Coordinator in Essex), were amongst the large team of judges that played a part in determining the best project winners.

The Branch Physics Prize was awarded to Aylesbury Grammar School with ‘We Went Ballistic’ in which Roman legionaries had been asked by the Emperor Nero to improve the range of the ballista; fortunately the Tardis arrived in time to help them (James Sterry, Oliver Sampson, George Mawdsley & Ross Buchanan). Yes, they were in costume, and had an excellent presentation. They were also the CREST Bronze award winner. Our other prize went to Nathan Challinor from Henlow Middle School with ‘Keep your Motor Turning’, he showed a good appreciation of electric motors with working models and experimental results.

IOP certificates were also awarded to the Watford Grammar School for Girls team investigating ‘’Does hairspray weaken human hair, (CREST Bronze runners up), and also the Hitchin Girls' School Hovercraft team.